The present invention relates to a touch probe, used for example, on a coordinate measuring machine or machine tool to determine the position of a workpiece.
A typical touch probe comprises a stylus mounted in a housing for movement from a rest position, and a mechanism for determining the instant of contact between the stylus and a workpiece. The instant such contact is detected, a signal is output from the probe which may be used to freeze the outputs of the readheads of the coordinate measuring machine or machine tool to which the probe is attached, thereby providing an indication of the position of the probe at the instant of the said contact.